Maj. J.M. Rolston

Captain John Mitchell Rolston, Canadian Engineers: holding the temporary rank of major, and "Rolly" to Robertson. Born at Saltash, Cornwall, on March 14, 1881, he was a land surveyor and draughtsman, resident before the war in Vancouver.

He first appears in April–June 1916 as an officer of the 2nd Army Troops Company, whose work Robertson is attached to for a stretch: "in direct touch with H.Q.," and "a good crowd anyway." Through 1917 he recurs constantly as "Maj. Rolston": a staff officer of the Divisional Engineers, telling Robertson of vacancies on the C.E.'s staff, acting as C.R.E. when the C.R.E. is on leave, and late in the year taking over the 1st Field Company and handing his own job to Bogart. He is still on the C.R.E.'s staff in 1918: laid up with a broken rib that January, and on July 22 telling Robertson he had "applied for me as a Co'y Commander."

The Corps seniority list Robertson kept records him as "Rolston, J.M.," a major, seniority date 14 October 1916, posted to "Corps." On June 1, 1917 the diary notes he was "having a dinner tomorrow night to celebrate his Legion d'Honneur"; he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the President of the French Republic, gazetted in the London Gazette of July 13, 1917 and promulgated in Canada that November. He survived the war and died in 1950. (His service record spells the middle name "Michell.") By October 1918 he is a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, Canadian Engineers: on October 21 he thanks Robertson's unit for its bridging help in the advance (Canal de la Sensée).